Shomria quilt

The Shomria quilt is on its way. This is supposed to be crazy quilt which for lack of time I will piece but all of the embroidery, embellishments, etc. will be done by the campers and staff. Fabricland had a sale last week so I bought six solid fabrics -- two blues, one green, one brown-gold and two yellows, and muslin. I am using the standard six-piece template I like to use. Yesterday evening, I ironed and cut the muslin squares. I will take the whole thing up with me on Friday and cut the coloured fabrics and do the piecing up there. I simply don't think I'll be able to finish it here on time but I need a better table for sewing up there. I'll have to figure something out.
To make the piece relevant, I am kind of thinking on a theme of peace.
So I've been giving some thought to embellishing. Each square has 5 seams so I'll need five styles of basic embroidery for them, which I have to teach. I thought feather-stitch, either single or double, chain stitch, on a wave, chevron stitch, herringbone, and one other -- better check the stitch dictionary. Then they can be further embellished with french knots, fly stitches, etc.
For the needle-challenged, I am going to be doing motifs in both stamping and stencilling. I thought of stamping doves and stencilling words (e.g. peace, shalom) in English and Hebrew and in different fonts. A few beads here, some buttons there and hopefully, it will all come together.
Then I'll just have to figure out how to sew the whole thing together (i.e. sashed or not, borders or not, central medallion or not.
I'm looking forward to the whole project.
In the meantime, I'm on a hectic schedule of taking the train Fridays at noon to camp and returning Sundays at midnight. (This weekend is a long weekend so I'll have one extra day of "serenity" ha ha in the idyllic surroundings of Shomria). Then I'm left with short weeks in which I work during the day, and spend my evenings doing the stuff that needs being done -- watering plants, mowing the law, gardening, shopping, visiting relatives, etc.
Off to decide which beads, threads, etc. to take up with me.

Old computers, slow internet, catch-up

On June 1st, I went up to Camp Shomria (Perth) with DH, who is the site and operation manager there. We usually go up on June 1st so we'll have a full month to get the camp into shape before the campers arrive July 1st.
Fortunately, our aging buildings did not suffer damage from the harsh winter (i.e. no trees fell on buildings, nothing collapsed... But mice apparently had a difficult winter and moved into at least two buildings. So, including the raccoon family which finds a new point of entry into the Beit Tarbut (rec hall) each year, we had major cleanup after the mice. In the room next to ours (it's a duplex), they ruined one mattress beyond repair, ate a hole in the fridge wall, not to mention droppings and nests everywhere. Same goes for the office.
We'll have to be more diligent in closing up this year and close up any holes under doors, around windows, next to the plumbing pipes, etc. Not that they won't be able to get in, but at least not to make it easier for them. At least we didn't have vandalism.
So I was up there two weeks. Our days consisted of 6-8 hours of physical labour and then "relaxing" -- trips into town to Canadian Tire for repair stuff, trips to the garbage dump... We also got in a few nice meals in Perth and some down time. We signed up at the Perth library and I read 8!! books in the two weeks.
At camp, we're on dial-up internet. And have an older version computer. Boy, is that frustrating. To pick up email takes forever, when the system doesn't shut down. In the end, we just went to the Perth library to read our email.
I got a little stitching done. I took up my sewing machine and started on my art quilt. Not terribly happy yet but I shall persevere. I took up all kinds of cq stuff to work on but didn't get started on any of it.
The two weeks were over, I took the train back, a 3.5 train ride to Toronto, another half hour on the subway and then a taxi home, getting home at around 11:30 p.m.
And that's how I'm going to be spending my weekends for the next two months, train from Toronto to Smiths Falls at 12:20 p.m. Friday, train from Smiths Falls to Toronto at 7:01p.m. Sundays.
Just looked at my watch. Time to run.

About those daily postings...

When I originally started blogging, I had hoped to use the blog as a daily journal. Ha! Now if I can blog weekly, I'm doing well.

This is a photo of Alana and Mindy taken just after Alana finished her Torah reading. She also led the services and did a wonderful job.

Alana is wearing the tallit I made her. It was a first effort. Overall, it was lovely. I could have made it a bit longer. I should have changed the placement of the stripes in proportion to the corners. But it was made with love and is quite pretty, especially with the outfit she wore that day.

I received many compliments and a few questions about whether I make tallitot for sale, the answer being hmmm. maybe.

The whole Bat Mitzvah was a lovely affair. It was a buffet luncheon at the shul. The food was good, there was background music (guitar and keyboard) which was background music. Except for the hora, the music was quiet and didn't interfere with conversation.

I think I already mentioned in a previous post how Yunkie and Mindy (i.e. Mindy) made other arrangements which were in keeping with the mitzvah part of Bat Mitzvah. The table centrepieces were mitvah "baskets" -- recyclable containers filled with products which after the simcha were donated to a woman's shelter. And the place cards were from Sick Kids Hospital where a donation was made in honour of the simcha.

And it was a busy week. Tuesday evening was an impromptu surprise birthday party for my mother's 86th at her place. My mother had for years talked about getting a roll-top desk and Charles found a small one which fits where the tea table used to stand. So he came in for dinner, Devora and Noam were there too. After dinner, Devora took Charles and Mom out for a walk and the rest of us showed up for dessert. It was very nice.

Wednesday, Mintzy invited us over for dinner and to "share" her grandson Noah. He is afraid of strangers (us). Rafi, Menachem and Noah played a game of indoor catch and Noah almost made it over to Menachem before he remembered that he was a stranger. It was quite comical.

Menachem has been busy all week making arrangements and picking stuff up for camp. We're going up today. So last night, we were busy doing laundry, packing, trying to concentrate all of the stuff in the front hall and hoping we don't forget anything. Perth is a big city and you can buy almost anything you need there but still there's stuff that we can bring from home.

I spent time organizing my sewing room so I could pack up stuff to take with including my new sewing machine. I'm hoping to get started on an art quilt while I'm up there during the next two weeks and something portable that I can work on while on the four hour train ride home.

Did I mention that Menachem put up a design wall for me? It's 1.5 inch styrofoam covered with quilting batting and industrial velcroed to the wall. I already tried out my robe quilts on it and am sure it will get much use over time. I am taking my robe quilts to Perth and am hoping that during the summer, Dee will help me problem-solve their wonkiness so I can finish them.

At camp, we have dial-up internet. And we won't have the phones connected until June 4th. So even if I wanted to post more frequently, I won't be able to. Fortunately, there appears (so far) to be less work than in previous years, so other than the immediate tasks of evicting a raccoon family from the rec hall and ridding the room next to us of mice and mice damage (they ate a hole in the plastic wall of the room's fridge) and some sorting of food donations in the pantry, hopefully we'll have a bit of a vacation. Ha ha.